Birthday Recap

Well, we made it to Disneyland and back.  We had a wonderful time and it was successful in diverting my attention from the fact that my baby is turning 6 and I am turning 39. At least for a little while. Kindergarten will be over in less than two weeks. I am having a very difficult time with that.  While not perfect, I think I have been a pretty good mom to a small child.  I worry about how well I will do with a big kid. I hate seeing him outgrow all the things I dearly love and have to focus on the idea that maybe new things will replace them. It's very hard and I am not handling it well.

Besides Disneyland, I had the stomach flu to distract me from my birthday.  That was kind of a bummer.  I get so few three-day weekends and I cherish them as rare and precious time with my family and son.  I did rally enough to go to see the new X-Men movie. Loved it!  And I did get to spend a little time with family and friends which means so much to me.

My friend Susie knows how much I love the Timmy Failure books.

Although the books are for kids, Susie and I love them. I think they are laugh-out-loud funny. The third one comes out this Fall. Susie is a talented artist and made me a very special birthday present:

She put Timmy Failure into a special picture just for me! Isn't it wonderful?!

I'm a lucky woman! 

My Summer schedule is now starting. In June and July, I work four ten-hour days and get Fridays off. I'm hoping to finally have some time to clean out my workroom and do something creative.  I haven't made a single creative thing in months. 

Bloggers IRL

Even though I have been blogging since 2003, I have never been a SERIOUS blogger. I have never had any interest in creating a following, making a living at blogging, or working to get sponsors and stuff.  I do it for myself. What I really enjoy is the inspiration I get from others.  And when I happen to meet on of those people in real life?  Even better.

Over the years, I have been lucky enough to meet incredible bloggers like Cathe Holden, Amy Powers and Shelly Massey.  Not to mention all the wonderful people I see at ART IS YOU every year! And now I can add another person to that list.

Last year, I was running around desperately trying to get a few Christmas presents together. I ran into Anthropologie with my 5-yr-old to try and pick up some special hot chocolate for my sister-in-law that they had there.  It never crossed my mind that I would ever be able to relax and do some proper shopping because that wasn't realistic with my son in tow.  When we walked, we saw a craft table filled with children making snow globes. The activity was led by this super-creative lady who told me I could leave my son with her while I shopped. He was given craft supplies and snacks and I gratefully headed off to shop.  Not only did he have a great time, he made something wonderful!!!

(Photo by Heather of Poppy Haus)

After Christmas, he would NOT let me put that snow globe away. It is still sitting in his room.  The best part of the story, that creative lady is a mom at my son's school!  And she has a wonderful blog!!!  I love finding new sources of inspiration. Especially when they are in my own backyard!  Head on over to POPPY HAUS for some great ideas. I have already tried several of her recipes!

Perfectly Imperfect Mother's Day Gift

My mother loves plants so Noodlebug and I decided to put together a living gift for Mother's Day. I used the same Eco pots from Joann's that I used for our Teacher Appreciation gifts.

I grabbed a couple of round sponge applicators from the tshirt/fabric paint aisle at Joann's and filled a small palette with white acrylic paint.  Noodle was able to dip the sponge applicator in the paint and make a circle on the pots.  You will see that the paint dripped sometimes.  It helps for your paint to be really thick.

Once the pots were done, Noodle and Daddy filled the bottom pot with soil and placed the smaller pot on top. Then they filled the edges with flowers and the top pot with flowers.  It is a little bit of a Leaning Tower of Pisa flower pot but Grandma loved it.

If we did this project again, I would try to find smaller flowers for the whole thing and definitely thicker paint!

Gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week

I haven't been posting for a long time because I have done absolutely nothing creative. I have completely given up on LIFE BOOK and my BRAVE GIRLS CLUB class.  I just haven't had the time to do anything. Luckily, I did manage to make a small gift for Teacher Appreciation Week at school.

My son has three Kindergarten teachers so it can be a challenge to find an affordable gift to give all three.  I was inspired by this post from THE IDEA ROOM.

(image source)

Mine isn't nearly as fancy. It is more of a budget version.  I wasn't able to find a good pail and I didn't have time to mod podge pages onto it so I did the next best thing. 

I headed over to Joann's and found these cool Eco Pots that were on sale. They had several different sizes and I just a good-sized medium one.  I got some succulents at OSH and painted the pots with chalkboard paint.  I didn't have a stencil and used masking tape with mixed results. Some of the paint got under the tape.  I took a wooden spoon and stamped it with the word "grow" and tied on the labels from THE IDEA ROOM.  I then wrote each teacher's name on the mini-chalkboard.

(all the pots ready to go!)

My husband and son dropped them off this morning.  Although they aren't as pretty as the ones from THE IDEA ROOM, I still think they came out well. And the teachers liked them!